o section belongs to
Maudlin alone, honey.... Just go where you like."

She now entered a large open gate into which an automobile had just
disappeared, and walked toward the house.

She paused to admire the exterior of the mansion. On the front, the
porches were furnished with rocking chairs and hammocks, but no person
was in sight. She walked around to the back, but as she was about to
knock, a voice arrested her action.

"Do you want to see somebody?"

She turned hastily. There before her was her King, the man she had met
on that memorable night more than two years before. He doffed his cap
smiling, recognizing her immediately, and Jinnie flushed to the roots
of her hair, while the shortwood strap slipped slowly from her
shoulders.

"Ah, you have something to sell?" he interrogated.

Jinnie's tongue clove to the roof of her mouth. She had never
completely forgotten him, and his smile was a delightful memory. Now
as he watched her quizzically, all her former admiration returned.

"Well, well," laughed the man, "if this isn't my little violin girl.
It's a long time since I saw you last.... Do you love your music as
much as ever?"

Her first glance at him brought the flushing consciousness that she
was but a shortwood gatherer; the strap and its burden placed a great
barrier between them. But his question about the fiddle, her fiddle,
placed her again on equal footing with him. She permitted herself to
smile.

"I play every day. My uncle loves it, but my aunt doesn't," she
answered naively.

"And you're selling wood?"

"Yes, I must help a little."

She made the assertion proudly, offering no excuse for her chosen
trade.

"And this is all for sale?" indicating the wood.

"Yes," said Jinnie, looking down upon it.

"I'll take it all," Theodore offered, putting his hand into his
pocket. "How much do you want for it?"

The girl gave him a puzzled glance. "I don't just know, but I
wish----I wish I could give it to you without any pay."

She moved a little closer and questioned eagerly:

"Won't you please take it?"

An amused expression crossed the man's handsome face.

"Of course not, my child," he exclaimed. "That wouldn't be business. I
want to buy it.... How about a dollar?"

Jinnie gasped. A dollar, a whole dollar! She made but little more
during an entire week; she had made less. A dollar would buy----Then a
thought flashed across her mind.

"I couldn't take a dollar," she refused, "it's to